» Masaki Seo of Hawaii Pacific University was one of eight college students in the nation to receive an award at the 2005 Alpha Chi National College Honor Society Convention in April. Seo, of Awaji City, Japan, is majoring in teaching English as a second language.

» University of Hawaii alumnus Christian Grootaert, a former lead economist in social development with the World Bank, has established a Chris Grootaert Endowed Scholarship Fund for undergraduates at the Department of Economics on the Manoa campus, where he graduated in 1978 with a Ph.D. in economics. Preference will be given to native Hawaiian students.

» Blaine T. Murakami, an engineering student graduate from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, has won the 2005 Alton B. Zerby and Carl T. Koerner Outstanding Engineering Student Award from the national electrical engineering honor society, Eta Kappa Nu. He is the third UH-Manoa student to win the award in the past five years.

Among his many awards, Murakami won the 2005 Student Engineer of the Year Award from the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers.

» Judith Vergun, director of the Kumu Ola: Source of Knowledge Program in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was one of nine individuals in the nation to receive a 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. Each awardee received a $10,000 grant for continued mentoring work.

Police, Fire, Courts

By Star-Bulletin staff

Woman with dementia found in Manoa Valley

An 86-year-old Manoa woman who suffers from dementia was found yesterday six hours after she disappeared.

The woman was reported missing after she was last seen walking out of residence on Keahi Street at about midnight Wednesday.

Police started searching for her in the neighborhood and surrounding areas.

At 6:15 a.m. yesterday, they received an anonymous call and found the woman at an address along Huelani Drive, one street above Keahi on the Ewa side of Manoa Valley.

She had apparently fallen and was lodged between a chain link fence and a concrete wall.

A city ambulance went to the address, where emergency medical workers treated the woman for scratches she suffered in the fall.

15-year-old charged with taking rifle to school

Police arrested a 15-year-old boy and charged him with a firearm violation after he allegedly took a rifle to school yesterday.

The boy was seen carrying what appeared to be a rifle case on Farrington High School grounds. When school security confronted the boy, he admitted having a rifle in the case, police said.

The boy was taken to the school's office, where school officials secured the rifle and called police.

The boy was taken to Honolulu Police Department headquarters and was charged last night.

Infant's brain injury spurs assault investigation

Police have opened an assault investigation after a 3-month-old Waianae girl was taken to the hospital with suspicious injuries.

The girl was taken to the hospital Wednesday because of a fever and fussiness, police said. She was diagnosed with brain and retinal bleeding. No other details were available.